As always, it pains me to share this kind of thing. Especially if you’re hearing it from me first. (And if that’s the case, I deeply apologize to be sharing this awful news.) But in the interest of ensuring that folks are aware… I’m incredibly sad to report the passing of Joshua Baer, often recognized as the “godfather” of the Austin, Texas, startup community and a consistent example — both inspirational and aspirational — for those of us who do startup community work.
You might not have known him. He did his work in Austin. But if you have ever tried to do the work of building a startup community — the patient, thankless, mostly invisible work of trying to make a place better for the founders building things in it — then you owe a debt to Josh, whether you knew his name or not. The founder of Capital Factory, died Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at the age of 50.
For me, losing him feels like losing one of the very few examples of how this work can and actually should be done. And done well.
Not a lot of people who set out to make their city a better place to start a company. And then, against pretty long odds, actually pull it off. It is a mysterious, uncharted, and unglamorous pursuit. You are perpetually rooting for other people. You are perpetually a little broke, a little tired, and a little uncertain whether any of it is working.
Josh did it anyway. For going on two decades. And he made it look like something worth doing for folks like me. Trying to emulate similar work.
We worked in parallel. As peers. And we would touch base from time to time. Although it wasn’t consistent. We had both started things in 2009. Him with Capital Factory and me with PIE. Similar things with similar goals. In similar towns. Front doors for anybody who wanted to build something and didn’t know where to start.
His success consistently provided guidance and inspiration for me and the work I was trying to do. Mostly because he was way better at it than I was. So I had way more to learn from him. He made the introductions. He put his own money and time and reputation behind other people’s ideas. And asked for nothing in return.
Capital Factory became a model. The model. The kind of thing people in other cities — including Portland — would point at and say, “What if we built one of those?”
That’s my highest compliment to his work: That he showed the rest of us it was possible.
This work — the community building, the front door opening, the rooting for other people — has very few success stories. Very few examples of how to do the work. And do it well. It is far easier to look at the ledger of people who tried and burned out and quietly walked away.
Joshua Baer was proof that you can pick the hardest, least rewarding job in the whole startup ecosystem. And do it with generosity and joy and stubbornness for the better part of twenty years. And leave a city genuinely better than you found it.
We don’t have nearly enough of those examples. We just lost one of the best of them. So if you’re doing this work — anywhere, in any city, for any community — keep doing it. He showed us it was possible. And I will always aspire to be even remotely as successful as he was at doing the work. And doing the work the right way.
Rest easy. You will be forever missed.
